U.S. Assails Christians For Forcing 30 Envoys To Flee : Embassy in Beirut Shut Down

The United States blamed a Christian military commander today for forcing the U.S. ambassador and his last 29 American staff members out of Lebanon by threatening to expose them to a “good dose of Christian terrorism.”

Two helicopters landed at the compound about 7:30 a.m. and a third hovered overhead, apparently providing cover, while the 30 Americans were evacuated, a witness said.

It is the first time an American ambassador has been pulled from Lebanon since the sectarian civil war began 14 years ago, and the move at least temporarily ended the American diplomatic presence in the country.

Commander Blamed

State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler angrily blamed the Christian army commander, Gen. Michel Aoun, for the move, saying he threatened to expose U.S. Ambassador John McCarthy and his staff to a “good dose of Christian terrorism” and told a newspaper that “perhaps he should take 20 American hostages.”

She said that before the evacuation, an unidentified telephone caller had threatened to shoot down the U.S. helicopter that brought supplies to the Embassy and that an unidentified protest leader said people in the Embassy entered and left “at their own risk.”

The Americans will return when “conditions permit,” Tutwiler said.

The ambassador and his staff were flown to Britain’s Akrotiri air base in nearby Cyprus and left on a U.S. military aircraft at about noon. The State Department said they were bound for a U.S. installation in West Germany but did not name it.

About 1,000 Christians were massed outside the Embassy in Christian East Beirut during the evacuation.

The Movement for Supporting Liberation threatened in a statement to resume the Embassy siege if McCarthy returned before Washington recognizes Aoun’s Christian Cabinet as the “legitimate Lebanese government.”

‘Cain and Abel’

Aoun, who has fought an artillery war with Syrian troops for six months, said of the evacuation: “It seems the American Cain couldn’t endure the stare of the Lebanese Abel, so he left.”

Aoun accuses the United States of supporting the presence of 40,000 Syrian soldiers in Lebanon, which he calls an occupation army.

McCarthy arrived a year ago, but to avoid extending recognition to either Aoun’s government or the competing Muslim Cabinet of acting Premier Salim Hoss, he did not present his credentials.

In Aoun’s statement, issued in English, the U.S.-trained general said: “I am not surprised at all by the apparently precipitate departure of our American guests early this morning.

“I use the term ‘guests’ since, as the American ambassador did not see fit to present his credentials to my government, his status and that of his officials was, strictly speaking, that of visitors.

“Such puzzling and petulant behavior by Mr. McCarthy merely reflects the nature and conduct of the U.S. State Department’s policy toward that part of Lebanon free of Syrian occupation.”